Virtual courts to be set up for trying petty offences
HC’s computer committee enters into MoU with SBI for payment gateway services
by Mohamed Imranullah S.Tamil Nadu is all set to become the fourth State in the country to establish virtual courts for trying petty offences and traffic challan cases by eliminating the physical presence of litigants and lawyers in the courts and instead adjudicating the matters online.
To begin with, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud of the Supreme Court would be inaugurating the facility for traffic challan cases in Chennai city alone, in the first phase, in the presence of Madras High Court Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi here on Tuesday.
According to court officials, the computer committee of the High Court led by Justice T.S. Sivagnanam had entered into a memorandum of understanding with State Bank of India for providing payment gateway services for depositing fines and penalties.
The virtual courts would eliminate the necessity for mobile courts in the city and ensure seamless online payment of fines imposed for violation of road traffic rules. Henceforth, police could stop with generating e-challans whenever they catch a person for traffic violation.
Immediately, after such generation, all details including the name of the violator, age, gender, driving licence number, mobile phone number, vehicle number, nature of offence, information regarding police and so on would get transferred to the server of the virtual court.
Summons on email
On receipt of such information, the virtual judge would generate summons along with details of the fine amount. Those details would be e-mailed and also sent through SMS to the person concerned along with a link to the virtual court website for payment of the fine amount.
After visiting the website, the accused could check a box if he/she chooses to plead guilty and proceed to pay the fine online.
On the other hand, if a person pleads not guilty, then an OTP would be generated to confirm it and the case would be forwarded to a regular court for trial.
The Supreme Court’s e-committee had decided to use the virtual courts even for offences, other than traffic violations, which attract fine amount of less than ₹1,000. It also has plans to introduce such virtual courts for motor accident claim petitions in the future, a court official said.
“Virtual courts will reduce the footfall in regular courts as the accused need not visit the courts to plead guilty. The burden on regular courts will be reduced and many judicial officers can be deputed for hearing other cases. Cases will also get disposed within hours,” he added.